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Monday, January 18, 2016

HOME VAN NEWSLETTER 1/18/16

From
Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Everybody can be great. Because anybody can
serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make
your subject and verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and
Aristotle... (or) Einstein's Theory of Relativity ... (or) the Second Theory of
Thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul
generated by love.

_____________________________________________________________________

THE TIDES ARE RISING

When I down-sized the Home Van to a food pantry, I
imagined that I would be filling a small but needed niche in Gainesville's
services. I knew the old loners and curmurdgeons who had been my friends and
customers for years would not be moving to Grace. I knew there were a fair
number of people with mental illness who find it difficult if not impossible to
leave their comfort zone, and of course there would be some who, as the old
Vermonters would say, were just 'agin it.' These folks would need a small
service center. It was like that for the first few weeks. Since then the
number of people who come to us for help, and the range of things they need,
have continued to rise week by week.

Some people tried out living at Dignity Village or
Grace and found out that they didn't like a living situation that involved rules
and supervision. It wasn't that they wanted to run wild and see how many
social norms they could shatter. It was more that it made them feel like
they'd moved back in with their parents, so they left. Others left because they
got into trouble - not big time, go to jail trouble, but enough trouble to be
restricted from Dignity and Grace for a certain amount of time. When services
were scattered about in the community, if you got into trouble at one agency,
you could go to another for help. With all the agencies concentrated in one
location behind a fence, you get restricted from everywhere - and that is a real
problem. For example, you get restricted for getting into a fist fight, a fist
fight that did not result in anyone needing medical attention. No one should be
handing out awards for getting into a fist fight, but a restriction should not
involve little or no access to food or blankets and such, in January. Theresa
and Jon are aware of this and it is one of the many things that have to be
worked out - how do you maintain order and at the same time avoid unjust levels
of hardship. It is not easy. Fortunately there are volunteers from the
community also working on this problem. Grace Marketplace and Dignity
Village are evolving projects that we can all support in one way or another
and they will only get better.

So, as people drift back downtown, there are few
resources available to them down here, and my food pantry is one of them. I am
officially open on Wednesday afternoons, but reasonable people (e.g., those who
come by during the day time hours and ring the bell once or twice and leave if I
am not home or available (as opposed to those who ring the bell 47 times), can
come by if they need an aspirin or a mylar blanket. It still works but it is a
larger challenge than I had expected. Giving people tents so they can establish
campsites is ideal, and the city may need to give more support to such a plan
on this end of town. The Sweetwater Branch tent community has been a stable,
self-governed living area for many years, so it is a feasible idea. Hiring
social workers to work one-on-one with people in need of mental health care
would surely be not only a more compassionate strategy, but also a less
expensive strategy than hauling people off to jail or the ER on a regular
basis. When Howard Dean was governor of Vermont, he added up all the money
being spent on homeless services, jail time, and emergency medical care, and
then added up how much it would cost to give everyone a place to live. The
second plan - give everyone a place to live - was MUCH CHEAPER!

To get back to my food pantry - food donations are
greatly needed! Almost everyone's favorite foods are Vienna sausages, Ramen
soup and peanut butter. Chef Boyardee and chunky soups are popular. With the
help of my friend Cheryl, and the Bread of the Mighty Food Bank, I always have a
lot of boiled eggs - people love getting them. I do need granola bars and
protein shakes. The granola bars, if possible, should be soft to chew. Over
the counter medications and batteries, especially double and triple A batteries,
are also needed. I do not need my mylar blankets - I have enough to last to
spring. I also have a lot of personal hygiene products and need only razors and
deodorant.

It is my sense that life has a kind of uncertain
quality to it these days - so much in flux, so many question marks. I wonder
how many people feel that way? The solution, I've discovered, is to life life
one day at a time. Despite being Irish, and being a poet, due to some genetic
miracle I'm not an alcoholic. Nevertheless, Bill W. and Dr. Bob are heros to me
- the idea of "one day at a time" is the answer to almost
everything.

If you would like to make a financial donation to
the Home Van food bank, the check should be made out to Citizens for Social
Justice and mailed to 307 SE 6th Street, Gainesville, FL 32601. To arrange for
a drop-off of supplies call 352-372-4825. And, as the old timers know, I have
my take-in window.

3 comments:

Arupa, your words are engaging and inspiring. My name is Charity, I am a sculptor and we met briefly at the 2nd Annual Day of Grace. I would love to hear more about your activism if you would ever have time for an interview or just a quick chat. Please feel free to contact me at charityswhite@gmail.com

Hi Arupa, I've been thinking of you and your efforts since last we met in G'Ville. I'm traveling, working on a documentary about homeless families and will be going through Gainesville soon, maybe today. Sorry for the short notice but it's a work in progress! I'd love to connect with you...and to possibly get leads to families able to share their stories. diane@hearus.us is my email. Thanks!

About Me

I'm a 13th-generation Vermonter who grew up in North Bennington. Now I live in Florida, where I coordinate an outreach mission, part of Citizens for Social Justice, which delivers food, clothing, friendship, and other necessities of life to homeless people in Gainesville. I write an email newsletter, with stories about our homeles friends. To read highlights from the Home Van Journal, visit my other blog, http://homevan.blogspot.com/